This is part of the Bloomberg article (another poster already put the link up which is http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aLzfDxfbwhzs)

Tell your Reps and Senators that you deserve medical treatment! (If you want to read the plan for yourself it's at readthestimulus.org)

"The bill’s health rules will affect “every individual in the United States” (445, 454, 479). Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system. Having electronic medical records at your fingertips, easily transferred to a hospital, is beneficial. It will help avoid duplicate tests and errors.

But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and “guide” your doctor’s decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.” According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners.”

Hospitals and doctors that are not “meaningful users” of the new system will face penalties. “Meaningful user” isn’t defined in the bill. That will be left to the HHS secretary, who will be empowered to impose “more stringent measures of meaningful use over time” (511, 518, 540-541)

What penalties will deter your doctor from going beyond the electronically delivered protocols when your condition is atypical or you need an experimental treatment? The vagueness is intentional. In his book, Daschle proposed an appointed body with vast powers to make the “tough” decisions elected politicians won’t make.

The stimulus bill does that, and calls it the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research (190-192). The goal, Daschle’s book explained, is to slow the development and use of new medications and technologies because they are driving up costs. He praises Europeans for being more willing to accept “hopeless diagnoses” and “forgo experimental treatments,” and he chastises Americans for expecting too much from the health-care system."

Honestly, you know our health care system is broken. It isnt going to get any better if people like you use scare tactics any time change is being put out there for contemplation. We are getting bad care right now, we might actually get nbetter care if our drs had time to see us. The paper work they have to wade through is un believable. Obama is and has been extremely compassionate towards the less fortunate, we need to have some faith in what is right for a change. Most people that are so threatened by change are afraid they might lose their place in line, its pathetic. And its true, we arent going to live forever, people do need to do a reality check. we have been so brainwashed we dont even accept that getting older actually does represent a loss of health for some.

This cannot be real? Because the bottom line to all of this is.....money. That's why it is in the stimulus plan. Not enough that the insurance co. screen every move, now the gov't will do the same. Why not put each patient on an assembly line and stamp them on the forehead with the required medication? Sorry couldn't help myself. And while I'm at it, since when has gov't been so efficient?

Hi Fred. Just wanted to point out the typo in your rant about our president. I'm sure you didn't mean to call President Obama "Osama", because that would bring what had been a high level discussion of electronic health care records down to a low level "Rush Limbaugh type" discussion, and Lord knows we don't want to go there or emulate him. The creation of a medical database concerns me also in many ways, especially about who will be able to access them. I am interested to hear more from others who post here because I don't know that much about it as of yet.

What upsets me is that Obama signed a bill on a Friday afternoon about two weeks ago. The bill gave 400 million dollars to Africa to perform abortions. Anytime a President does something on a Friday afternoon its suspicious. Why our we sending money to other countries when we have our own problems? And part of the stimulus package gives free contraception to citizens because according to Nancy Palossi it reduces costs??? We need money for research and drugs, ect... for a health epidemic that is effecting millions of americans!!!

Congress.gov is a clearinghouse for groups that issue Action Alerts--requests for letters from constituents on a variety of issues.

If one goes to this site, clicks on Issues/Actions at the top of the page, and then selects Health, one will come up with at least two groups who are also concerned about the Health Information Technology sections of this bill. Both have already put together language that can be used to write to Congress.

Anyone hardy enough to read what I think is the latest version of the legislation can find it at

On health care reform, the American people are too often offered two extremes -- government-run health care with higher taxes or letting the insurance companies operate without rules.

President Obama and Vice President Biden believe both of these extremes are wrong, and that’s why they’ve proposed a plan that strengthens employer coverage, makes insurance companies accountable and ensures patient choice of doctor and care without government interference.

Under the Obama-Biden plan, patients will be able to make health care decisions with their doctors, instead of being blocked by insurance company bureaucrats.

Under the plan, if you like your current health insurance, nothing changes, except your costs will go down by as much as $2,500 per year.

If you don’t have health insurance, you will have a choice of new, affordable health insurance options.

Make Health Insurance Work for People and Businesses -- Not Just Insurance and Drug Companies.

Require insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions so all Americans regardless of their health status or history can get comprehensive benefits at fair and stable premiums.

Create a new Small Business Health Tax Credit to help small businesses provide affordable health insurance to their employees.

Lower costs for businesses by covering a portion of the catastrophic health costs they pay in return for lower premiums for employees.

Prevent insurers from overcharging doctors for their malpractice insurance and invest in proven strategies to reduce preventable medical errors.

Make employer contributions more fair by requiring large employers that do not offer coverage or make a meaningful contribution to the cost of quality health coverage for their employees to contribute a percentage of payroll toward the costs of their employees' health care.

Establish a National Health Insurance Exchange with a range of private insurance options as well as a new public plan based on benefits available to members of Congress that will allow individuals and small businesses to buy affordable health coverage.

Ensure everyone who needs it will receive a tax credit for their premiums.

Reduce Costs and Save a Typical American Family up to $2,500 as reforms phase in:

Lower drug costs by allowing the importation of safe medicines from other developed countries, increasing the use of generic drugs in public programs, and taking on drug companies that block cheaper generic medicines from the market.

Reduce the costs of catastrophic illnesses for employers and their employees.

Reform the insurance market to increase competition by taking on anti-competitive activity that drives up prices without improving quality of care.

The Obama-Biden plan will promote public health. It will require coverage of preventive services, including cancer screenings, and increase state and local preparedness for terrorist attacks and natural disasters.

OMG.....right wing fear mongering at it's best. None of this is in the stim bill!! Go and look for yourself and stop letting the right wing radio noise machine think for you. What's worse is this is how it spreads. The person that started this got on FOX (where else) was a paid activist for the drug companies. This is the start of the fight for any kind of compassionate health care system in the U.S. it's going to get way worse. So please look things up for yourself.